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Last year at this time we ran a post on the Scottish custom of eating haggis in celebration of the birthday of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet. Haggis, you may recall, is usually described as a “savory pudding” which contains sheep’s guts (heart, liver and lungs) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, stock, and then encased in the animal’s stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. It is traditionally served with turnips and potatoes — or neeps and tatties, in Scots slang.

Unfortunately for some, getting authentic haggis in the United States is not easy, because, among other reasons, the use of sheep lungs has been banned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 1971. (Just this fact alone has raised my estimation of government regulations.) A 1989 health ban on all British offal extended the restriction to hearts and livers, also vital for a true Scottish haggis.

But some creative chefs have come up with vegetarian versions of haggis, so that you can still celebrate if you like. You probably don’t need the whiskey so much for this version…. (just saying….)

1. In a medium casserole, cook the shallots and garlic in the butter over medium heat until very soft, 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms; increase heat to medium-high. Cook until mushrooms release their water and start to brown. Add the spices; cook for a couple of minutes. Add the carrots, lentils, lemon zest and salt; pour in boiling stock until the ingredients are just submerged, about 2 cups or more as needed. Simmer, covered, until the lentils are soft, about 15 minutes.

2. Mash the beans roughly with a fork; add them to the pan along with the oatmeal. Add a little more stock if needed, but the oatmeal should absorb the liquid so you’re left with something relatively firm. Stir over a low heat until the oatmeal has plumpened, about 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice, then taste and correct the seasoning.

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You can watch a youtube presentation of Burns’s poem here:

This post will be linked to this Saturday’s Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. where bloggers share food-related posts. Stop by her blog and see what’s cooking this week!

If you google “National Pizza Month” you will find a gazillion hits alleging that Congress designated this holiday in 1987. However, if you check through the bills passed by Congress that year, you will not find such a declaration. [You will, however, find all kinds of other designations, such as for a National Dairy Goat Awareness Week and a National Tap Dance Day and even a National Day of Excellence (wait: just one DAY?)].

But no matter: Congress should have done it, so we’ll celebrate anyway! Because approximately three BILLION pizzas are sold in the U.S. every year, two billion of them going to MY house.

On average, every person in the U.S. consumes around 23 pounds of pizza each year. (Again, that average is skewed by the number of pounds eaten by my husband and me, and for that matter, by the number of pounds acquired by my husband and me after consuming all that pizza.)

The top 5 pizza sales days are Super Bowl Sunday, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, the night before Thanksgiving, & New Year’s Day. In our house, the top pizza consumption days are Saturday and Sunday (“treat days”) and then other days for leftovers.

In spite of the fact that this pizza consumption kills off some 252 million pounds of pepperonis a year, we don’t do pepperoni. Neither do we go for the pizza toppings popular in Japan, which include squid and Mayo Jaga (mayonaise, potato and bacon).

According to the Guinness World Records site, the most expensive pizza commercially available is a thin-crust, wood fire-baked pizza topped with onion puree, white truffle paste, fontina cheese, baby mozzarella, pancetta, cep mushrooms, freshly picked wild mizuna lettuce and garnished with fresh shavings of a rare Italian white truffle. Depending upon the amount of truffles available each season, the pizza is regularly sold at £100 each to customers of Gordon Ramsey’s Maze restaurant, London, UK.

We don’t do that kind of pizza either. We like lots of cheese. I like mushrooms and onions. Jim occasionally insists on an add-on of sausage because he, after all, was born in Chicago. But I insist on strict lines of demarcation between his half and mine. Here is a recipe I have used for a wonderful pizza. It is adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Vegetarian Epicure: Book Two by Anna Thomas:

Sift together the flour and the salt. Slice the cold butter rapidly and drop the slices into the flour. With a pastry cutter or two sharp knives, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse corn meal.

Sprinkle the ice water over the flour-butter mixture and stir it in very quickly with a fork, until the dough gathers together. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in wax paper or foil, and chill it for about 2 hours.

Makes enough dough for 1 large (11 or 12 inch) quiche shell.

Preparing the shell

On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough out in a circle about 2 ½ inches larer than your quiche pan. Roll the circle of dough loosely around your rolling in and unroll it over the quiche pan, centering it as well as possible. Press the sides in against the rim of the pan, pushing the extra dough down a bit to make an edge that is slightly thicker than the bottom. Trim the dough off with a sharp knife, about ¼ inch above the rim of the pan.

Crimp the ridge of dough neatly just about the rim of the pan. Prick the bottom of the shell all over with a fork, and chill the shell for ½ hr.

Prebake the shell in a preheated 450 oven for about 8 minutes, prick again with a fork, and return to the hot oven for another 4-5 minutes, or until the bottom of the shell begins to color. Allow the shell to cool slightly on a rack, then fill and finish baking according to recipe.

Prepare the short crust, line an 11-inch quiche pan with it, and prebake according to instructions above.

Chop the tomatoes coarsely, reserving their juice. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and sauté the garlic in it for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juice, ½ tsp of the salt, the basil, and a little fresh-ground black pepper. Simmer this sauce, stirring occasionally, until it is reduced by about half. It should be quite thick.

Peel, halve, and thickly slice the onions. Saute them in the butter until they are golden and sprinkle them with the ¼ tsp salt.

Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the bottom of the quiche shell. Arrange the sautéed onion slices over it in an even layer. Cover the onions with the tomato sauce.

Cut the mozzarella in thin strips and arrange them evenly on top of the tomato sauce. Slice the olives off their pits and sprinkle the olive bits over the mozzarella cheese.

Bake the pie for 35 minutes in a preheated oven at 375 and serve hot.

Serves 6 to 8.

Happy Quasi-Legal Pizza Month!!

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This post will be linked to this Saturday’s Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. where bloggers share food-related posts. Stop by her blog and see what’s cooking this week!

The peach is actually a member of the rose family and originated in China, as ascertained by genetic studies. There are two main varieties of peaches and one hybrid form: clingstone (the flesh sticks to the stone), freestone (the stone is easily separated from the flesh), and semi-free.

Could you really imagine celebrating Eat a Peach Day without considering making a cobbler? No, unthinkable. And since there are so many blueberries around too, I think it would only be appropriate to combine them.

There are some great looking recipes all over the Web and Pinterest. Two that look especially good to me are at Picky Palate and Homestyle Report.

The picture shown below comes from another good recipe at The Browneyed Baker, a cook who always knows the importance of adding a dollop of ice cream to the top of whatever you’re serving!

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This post will be linked to this Saturday’s Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. where bloggers share food-related posts. Stop by her blog and see what’s cooking this week!

As you undoubtedly are aware, today is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day. Throughout the years on this blog, I have posted many paeans to peanut butter, and have also told you how we are a divided household, with creamy for me and crunchy for Jim. And, just as Dave Barry said in his amusing book, How to Become a Successful Writer Without Really Trying:

There is basically nothing in my kitchen that I have not, at one time or another . . . smeared peanut butter on. I include pot holders in that statement.”

The National Peanut Board says it takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter, so yes, I kind of feel guilty for all the peanuts I personally decimate.

On my Pinterest Board for recipes, many of the recipes you will see include either chocolate, peanut butter, or both. (Viz: Peanut Butter Cup Overload Cake, Monkey Peanut Butter Bars, Crock Pot Peanut Butter Cup Cake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake, and so on.) (Just to fake people out, most of my other recipes involve quinoa.)

Peanut Butter Cup Overload Cake

According to ABC News, the peanut butter cookie was invented in the 1910′s, when George Washington Carver of Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute published a peanut cookbook in an effort to promote the crop. The cookbook titled How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption included several recipes for cookies that called for chopped peanuts. Peanut butter was added to the cookies 20 years later along with the fork marks that are associated with the cookie today.

What will I be making to celebrate this holiday? I’m thinking Peanut Butter Cookie with Toffee and Chocolate Chips. The recipe, from Back For Seconds Blog, is here:

Preheat oven to 350
In a mixing bowl cream the butter, peanut butter, oil, and sugars.
Add egg and salt and mix again.
Add baking soda and flour gradually until incorporated. Do not over mix.
Stir in chips and toffee.
Drop by rounded teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet 2″ apart.
Bake 6 minutes.
Cool on wire racks and store in an airtight container.

Happy Peanut Butter Cookie Day!!

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This post will be linked to this Saturday’s Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. where bloggers share food-related posts. Stop by her blog and see what’s cooking this week!

A pretzel … is a type of baked food made from dough in soft and hard varieties and savory or sweet flavors in a unique knot-like shape, originating in Europe. The pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical looped form, with the ends of a long strip of dough intertwine brought together and then twisted back onto itself in a certain way (“a pretzel loop”).”

According to The Book of Threes, the term “tying the knot” grew out of the inclusion of pretzels in wedding ceremonies:

The couple wished upon and broke a pretzel like a wishbone, then ate it to signify their oneness. A 17th century woodcut copied from a stained glass window in a cathedral in Berne, Switzerland, shows the pretzel being used as the “marriage knot” between two royal families.”

As you may know, Jim, my blog co-writer and verbal sparing mate, has a congenital hearing disability. He needs the sound on the television turned up way too loud for me to co-exist in the same room (or even the same universe), so when he watches tv, he takes out his hearing aids and puts in TV Ears. (I love their ad – shown below – with the caption “TV Ears Saved Our Marriage” because it’s totally true!)

One day, Jim was watching an especially intense football game, and I got him a bowl of pretzels and put it on the table next to him, where he also had placed his hearing aids (since you have to take them out to use TV Ears.) He never took his eyes off the screen, but kept inputting the pretzels, until he came to one that just wasn’t crunching up like it should. Yes, it turned out to be a $3,000 “pretzel”! I’m not posting that recipe on Pinterest. Just saying.

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This post will be linked to this Saturday’s Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. where bloggers share food-related posts. Stop by her blog and see what’s cooking this week!

Pi Day is an annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (the Greek letter pi), the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated around the world on March 14th since Pi = 3.1415926535…

Next year will be especially exciting: in the year 2015, Pi Day will have special significance at 9:26:53 a.m. and p.m., with the date and time representing the first 10 digits of pi.

While the American Pie Council (APC) denotes January 23 as National PIE Day, the U.S. Congress recognizes March 14 as PI Day, but both can be celebrated by baking pies.

According to the APC, the first pies were probably made by early Romans, and appeared in England as early as the Twelfth Century. Pie came to America with the first English settlers. The early colonists cooked their pies in long narrow pans calling them “coffins” like the crust was called in England. Among the other benefits of the American Revolution, it brought into common use the word “crust” rather than “coffin.”

How to celebrate? Make your pie big enough to share! “Hand pies” may not be appropriate, as shown by this calculation by Trader Joe’s:

On the other hand, this “pi pie,” created at Delft University of Technology in 2008 suggests a more share-friendly approach to Pi Day!

Happy 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939… Day!

This post will be linked to this Saturday’s Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. where bloggers share food-related posts. Stop by her blog and see what’s cooking this week!

Enough about food I won’t eat! (See my post here, on haggis). Today is the day to talk about food I can almost never resist, i.e., Molten Chocolate Cake.

What could be better than Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream? (Well, the answer is obvious: Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream With No Calories Whatsoever.) I think this “quick and easy” recipe from Food and Wine by master chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten fills the bill, since no calories are listed.

Preheat the oven to 450°. Butter and lightly flour four 6-ounce ramekins. Tap out the excess flour. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet.

In a double boiler, over simmering water, melt the butter with the chocolate. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the egg yolks, sugar and salt at high speed until thickened and pale.

Whisk the chocolate until smooth. Quickly fold it into the egg mixture along with the flour. Spoon the batter into the prepared ramekins and bake for 12 minutes, or until the sides of the cakes are firm but the centers are soft. Let the cakes cool in the ramekins for 1 minute, then cover each with an inverted dessert plate. Carefully turn each one over, let stand for 10 seconds and then unmold. Serve immediately.

Note: The batter can be refrigerated for several hours; bring to room temperature before baking.

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BUT: What if you prefer your chocolate cake to have a complementary flavor with it, so it’s not just chocolate goo inside more chocolate? How about caramel goo inside? This recipe for Gooey Chocolate Caramel Cake from Pinch of Yum is outstanding, and what you end up with looks like this:

Happy Chocolate Cake Day!!

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This post will be linked to this Saturday’s Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. where bloggers share food-related posts. Stop by her blog and see what’s cooking this week!